India opener KL Rahul reflected on a thrilling tie against Afghanistan in India’s last Super Four match at the Asia Cup 2018, saying the game will stay in the players’ memories for a long time.
The game in Dubai on Tuesday, 25 September went down to the wire, ending in a dramatic tie. Afghanistan scored 252/8, courtesy Mohammad Shahzad’s magnificent 116-ball 124 and a quick 64 from Mohammad Nabi.
“It’s very tricky when you have just one review with you,” said Rahul after the match. “Obviously, looking back at it, I felt like I shouldn’t have taken the review but at that time, in the middle, I felt like maybe I was struck outside and I wanted to take that chance.
“Sometimes you can sit back here and review the review you took and say maybe you could have left it to the guys at the end but I felt like I could have been struck outside so I took that chance.
“We learn with it. The shot I played, the review that I took, I’ll have to go back and maybe if it happens again I’ll be in a better position to know what to do.”
MS Dhoni, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav could not occupy the crease for long, and only Ravindra Jadeja, who hit 25, helped India take the game deep. Rashid Khan, however, defended six runs in the last over.
“I don’t think we crumbled,” argued Rahul. “When the ball starts slowing up and spinning like that, it is hard for middle order batsmen to come in and get the runs going. I think DK played really well, few good partnerships with Kedar and, in the end, Jadeja and Deepak [Chahar] put up a decent fight.
